GRA Confirms Revenue Shortfall

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has issued an inconsistent press statement which, in one breath, clearly confirms that there was a shortfall of over 45 percent in revenue targets at the Tema Ports for the month of June, but the same statement claims media reports which highlighted the shortfall of the same 45 percent are “misleading”.

According to the GRA, in June 2020, the revenue target for Tema Port was GHC1,006.88 million but only GHC553, 57 million was realized. This means there was a variance of some GHC450 million under the Ghana Link/UNIPASS-ICUMS platform.

Interestingly, the GRA explains in its statement that the target of GHC1,006.88 million that was set by the Finance Ministry for the Tema Port was just a “stretched target” which was not necessarily meant to be achieved but the figure was simply thrown in there only to “encourage staff to achieve more” and to “motivate staff to perform optimally.”

The Authority said this is not the first time the Tema Port is experiencing revenue losses in the range of GHC400 million on monthly bases and that the revenue performance for the year has been generally below target.

The press statement was signed by the Assistant Commissioner in charge of Communications and Public Affairs at the GRA, Mrs. Florence Asante and dated Monday, August 3.

The confession that June had a revenue short fall of over 45 percent and that revenue targets is not being met, completely contradicts the narrative from the GRA Board Chairman, Professor Stephen Adei, who was recently on a public-relations interview in the media claiming that there are better results in revenue collection.

“We are getting better results – because in May and June alone, even under COVID-19, there was far more collection of revenue than previously collected under the old system,” Prof. Adei told Joy FM at a time the Tema Ports collection alone had a variance of GHC- GHC-453,313,101.94, a shortfall of over 45 percent for June.

According to the GRA, the inability to meet revenue targets should not be blamed the controversial Ghana Link/UNIPASS-ICUMS platform.

“The fact that the ‘stretched target’ was not achieved does not in any way point to the deployment of ICUMS as a factor in the Tema June 2020 revenue collection”, the GRA statement said. It was however silent on the ongoing difficulties encountered by the Ghana Link/UNIPAS-ICUMS platform that has disrupted the ease of doing business at Ghana’s ports.

Insiders have laughed off the statement and explained that the target, of GHC1,006.88 million for the Tema port was arrived at after factoring in the COVID-19 slow season and all other factors.

They suggest that the revenue shortfall was caused by a systemic violation of World Trade Organization (WTO) standard procedures in trade facilitation and that the blame squarely falls on the Ghana Link/UNIPASS-ICUMS platform that has encountered all manner of embarrassing inefficiencies.

Despite the ‘defensive’ posture adopted by the GRA over ICUMS, revenue mobilization at the ports would continue to suffer until the WTO standard procedures in Single Window and paperless ports management are adopted by Ghana Link/UNIPASS-ICUMS and strictly adhered to,.

Unfortunately, Ghana Link/UNIPASS-ICUMS is still unable to completely synchronize all stakeholder institutions and regulatory agencies in the single window and paperless ports chain and in many instances electronic bank payments do not go through therefore importers resort to physical cash payments of import duties with its accompanying human interference.

Further breaching the WTO standard procedures, there are instances of manual verification, manual releases, plus physical inspection of goods leading to delays and possible human influence.

There are also countless complaints of wrongful calculation of import duties to an extent that under Ghana Link/UNIPASS-ICUMS a 2016 model Chevrolet could be cleared for as low as GHC14 amidst other breaches of WTO standard procedures. The importer was rather blamed and accused of beating the system.